Horror movie reviews on a range of movies (ranging from terrible to terrifying)

Monday, 30 September 2013

Tales From the Crypt: Ritual

"Tales From the Crypt: Ritual" (2002, Avi Nesher,
RKO Pictures, Silver Pictures, Dimension Films) is actually the third full
length film based on the fondly remembered series, “Tales From the Crypt”.
Sadly, due to some executive decisions relating to popularity of these films
(or lack thereof), there is no sign or mention of the Crypt Keeper himself.

We meet Dr. Alice Dodgson (Jennifer Grey) who has had her
medical licence revoked for using medication which has not been approved by the
medical board and killing a patient. She had some noble reasons though, so we’re
supposed to forgive her malpractice without question...

Anyway, long story short she secures herself a position in
Jamaica treating one patient, rich boy Wesley Claybourne (Daniel Lapaine), who
believes he is under a Voodoo curse.

More of a mystery film than a horror, I’d hasten to add that
the only action is all in our characters’ heads in the form of hallucination
and even then the plot and action are slow until the end when a delightful “Crypt”
twist is added. All that was missing was The Keepers gleeful laughter there.

The redeeming qualities are, of course, the presence of Tim
Curry, who is grossly underutilised in the script, and Dirty Dancing’s Jennifer
Grey, as well as harking back to the
voodoo zombie classics of old (“I Walked With a Zombie” and “White Zombie” for
example), however, the execution is not up to scratch resulting in a shoddy knock-off
rather than a clever homage.